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Well, as it always does, the season has progressed since the wild wanderings in the City of Sin, and we have yet to see a metagame take shape. It seems that every qualifier sees a new deck awaken to its' calling and shape the minds of avid net followers and players around the world. Upon leaving the glowing city of lights on an early morning flight, I found myself wondering what indeed would become the deck of choice in the following weeks, and how to effectively combat against the new archetypes that had surfaced and found a home in the extended format.

Vegas saw the emergence of a synergetic archetype known as Miracle-Gro. Alan Comer had done well with this, but he did such an effective job of eliminating the Donate

decks that he inadvertently removed himself from Top 8. We also saw the appearance of The Rock, which Mike Pustilinsk rode all the way to victory. PT Junk found it's place in Vegas, with a majority of Day 2 decks being made up of W/G/B. So, at this point do we have a metagame, or was Vegas a small sampling of what was yet to come?

Meanwhile, south of the border, Curitiba found a whole other metagame shaping up, as the field was more varied and we saw such decks as Finkula, Wallamies variants, The Rock, Three-Deuce, and Benzo taking it to the top 8. These results combined with Vegas proved that the environment was one to yet take shape, as the first two large events of the season had left us in a euphorical merry-go-round of random decks and no stand out archetype which could not be defeated.

standard, with over half of the Top 8 field playing one version or another of Kai's Pro-Tour Standard. Mike Long took to shaping the Miracle-Gro of Alan Comer to his own styling, and did quite well with it, unfortunately loosing to one of the only other non Donate

all taking honors at their various events. Is this the end of metagaming? Looking through the annals of magic history, a single deck has always seemed to donate the Extended qualifying season. Never has such a wide variety of decks placed well during a single season. And then comes Houston.

Houston was where we met the grandchildren of Alan Comers' Miracle-Gro. It had evolved into a white-splashed version dubbed ´´Super-Gro´´, and was the bane of it's predecessor. Half of the decks of the Top 8 at Houston were of the Miracle-Gro variety, and Bob Maher

proved once again that even Sligh can do well in the appropriate hands. However, we saw that BUg can eat up those delicious growing critters with a simple clearing of the board with Deed, and Josh Smith is now a couple grand richer thanks to his deck choice.

It is here that most of you are probably waiting to read, as my rhetoric of this season's history has come to an end, and I pose the question, what do we do for the final few weeks that the season has to offer? I extend to you a few decks of my maniacal mind that seem to have done well in playtesting, and against a field of Junk, Gro, and Donate

. The deck is quick and effective, as the mana curve works with you. The sideboard is more in a developing stage than a working one, as I have had very few chances to use it. The deck works as any standard beatdown should, with quick creatures on turn 2, 3, 4, and 5. The amount of removal may not be necessary, but I have found that in the current environment, creature heavy decks are more and more frequent than the old standard of 2 Morphling

is still in the maybe category, but I find it useful against Wallamies type decks that continually destroy your creatures, and also against Sligh and White Weenie (if you happen to see any :) Other sideboard choices I have seriously considered for this deck are Tsunami

may be used in place of the Furnaces as well, as both accomplish the same effect, though through different means. Please feel free to e-mail me with any suggestions or comments regarding this or the next deck, and let me know improvements, changes, or testing results regarding it.

s in, but what to take out is a choice for only the divine to make. This deck is even less tested than the previously mentioned one, however, it seems worthy of a mention as the continually evolving metagame for this season is in constant flux.

A couple things these decks have in common are the amount of creature removal and hand disruption, and the two-color scheme, to lesson the effect of such devastating spells such as Ruination

. The mana curves are right, the creatures amazing, so try them out and let me know.

Well, back to the drawing board, and a few games of Magic Online as I sit back and ponder what indeed will be the next big deck of choice for this exciting Extended season. If any of you do happen to try these decks, and accomplish meteoric fame and fortune, please let me know, as I dawdle about and dream of someday taking Kai to his demise in the red zone.

Until next time, and the Standard environment,

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